1️⃣ MLA Style Citation

MLA style citations are used when referencing a research paper in languages/arts/cultural studies/humanities subjects. It usually has in-text citations rather than footnotes. At the end of the paper, the reference page should always be called a ‘works cited’ page. MLA follows a strict order when it comes to constructing your references, as seen here.

Book

• [WITH NO AUTHOR]: Encyclopedia of Indiana. Somerset, 1993.
• [WITH ONE AUTHOR]: Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.
• [WITH TWO AUTHORS]: Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
• [WITH MULTIPLE AUTHORS]: Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Utah State UP, 2004.

Journal Article

• [ARTICLE WITH NO AUTHOR]: “Business: Global Warming’s Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland.” The Economist, May 26, 2007, p. 82.
• [ARTICLE WITH ONE AUTHOR]: Poniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.” Time, November 20, 2000, pp. 70-71.
• [ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER]: Brubaker, Bill. “New Health Center Targets County’s Uninsured Patients.” Washington Post, May 24, 2007, p. LZ01.

Presentation

• Stein, Bob. “Reading and Writing in the Digital Era.” Discovering Digital Dimensions, Computers and Writing Conference, May 23, 2003, Union Club Hotel, West Lafayette, IN. Keynote Address.

Dissertation or Thesis

• Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign. 2002. Purdue University, Ph.D. dissertation.

2️⃣ APA Style Citation

APA stands for American Psychological Association, and it is typically used to reference a research paper in one of the social science subjects. APA citation style does not usually use footnotes instead of using in-text citations. When gathering your references, put them on a separate page labelled ‘references’. Reference lists should have a hanging indent – this is when every line below the first line of a citation is indented.

Book

• [NO AUTHOR, EDITED BOOK]: Leitch, M. G., & Rushton, C. J. (Eds.). (2019). A new companion to Malory. D. S. Brewer.
• [ONE AUTHOR]: Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.
• [ONE CHAPTER IN AN EDITED BOOK]: Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion to Malory (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.

Journal Article

• [PRINT ARTICLE]: Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
• [ONLINE ARTICLE WITH DOI]: Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
• [ONLINE ARTICLE WITHOUT DOI]: Denny, H., Nordlof, J., & Salem, L. (2018). “Tell me exactly what it was that I was doing that was so bad”: Understanding the needs and expectations of working-class students in writing centers. Writing Center Journal, 37(1), 67–98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26537363

Presentation

• [PRESENTATION WITHOUT AN ONLINE SOURCE]: Matson, E. (2018, November 5). Drones and autonomous vehicles: The latest new technology to come with the potential threat [Conference session]. Dawn or Doom 2018 Conference, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
• [PRESENTATION WITH AN ONLINE SOURCE]: Bailey, C. (2019, April 5). How to get your brain to focus [Address]. TEDxManchester, Manchester, U.K. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4Yvq-g7_Y
• [SINGLE PRESENTATION FROM A MORE COMPREHENSIVE PRESENTATION]: Fabian, J. J. (2020, May 14). UX in free educational content. In J. S. Doe (Chair), The case of the Purdue OWL: Accessibility and online content development [Panel presentation] Computers and Writing 2020, Greenville, NC, United States.

Dissertation or Thesis

• [PUBLISHED]: Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services (Publication No. 3544643) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
• [UNPUBLISHED]: Samson, J. M. (2016). Human trafficking and globalization [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

3️⃣ Chicago Style Citation

The Chicago Manual of Style is typically used to cite a research paper in history/literature/arts areas. Chicago style is unusual because it gives people a choice in how they can do things. They can either do in-text citations, or they can do footnotes. Both styles have a separate references page, which should have a bibliography at the top.

Book

• [BOOK WITH ONE AUTHOR]: Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York: Viking Press, 1958.
• [Chapter From A Book With One Author]: Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” In Borderlands: The New Mestiza – La Frontera, 53–64. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Book Company, 1987.
• [BOOK WITH ONE AUTHOR AND EDITOR]: Tylor, Edward B. Researches into the Early Development of Mankind and the Development of Civilization. Edited by Paul Bohannan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.
• [BOOK WITH MULTIPLE AUTHORS]: Lash, Scott, and John Urry. Economies of Signs & Space. London: Sage Publications, 1994.

Journal Article

• [PRINT ARTICLE]: MacDonald, Susan Peck. “The Erasure of Language.” College Composition and Communication 58, no. 4 (2007): 585-625.
• [ONLINE ARTICLE]: Bent, Henry E. “Professionalization of the Ph.D. Degree.” College Composition and Communication 58, no. 4 (2007): 0-145. Accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1978286.

Presentation

Hanstedt, Paul. “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March 2009.

Dissertation or Thesis

Hostetler, Tara. “Bodies at War: Bacteriology and the Carrier Narratives of ‘Typhoid Mary.’” Master’s thesis, Florida State University, 2007.

4️⃣ ASA Style Citation

ASA stands for American Sociological Association. It is generally used as research papers citation for the social sciences and related subjects. ASA uses the same format as the Chicago Manual of Style for in-text citations.

Book

Baltzell, E. Digby. 1958. Philadelphia Gentlemen. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Journal Article

Conger, Rand. 1997. “The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting.” American Journal of Sociology 79:1179-259.

Presentation

Conard-Salvo, Tammy, Caitlan Spronk, and Joshua M. Paiz. 2014.  “Soaring into the Future: The Purdue OWL and Supporting the Next Generation of Writers.” Presented at the 2014 ECWCA Conference, March 28, Miami, Ohio.  Retrieved November 21, 2014 (http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1003&context=writinglabpres).

Dissertation or Thesis

King, Andrew J. 1976. “Law and Land Use in Chicago: A Pre-history of Modern Zoning.” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

5️⃣ Turabian Style Citation

Turabian style is a style that is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. It is precisely for research paper references. This style has two in-text citation styles. Depending on the paper, you can have either footnote or an author-date notation.

Book

Higgonet, Anne. Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Journal Article

Sheehan, Norman W. “Indigenous Knowledge and Respectful Design: An Evidence-Based Approach.” Design Issues 27, no. 4 (Autumn 2011): 68-80.

Presentation

Hanstedt, Paul. “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March

Dissertation or Thesis

Murphy, Priscillia Coit. “What a Book Can Do: Silent Spring and Media-Borne Public Debate.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, 2000.

✔️ Summary

Hopefully, you now have some idea of what different citation styles are like. Other papers have different requirements, but start from here, and you’ll find it all easy enough. Just remember the basics, and work from there.